Lets have a look at the myths about cats…and cat videos.

OK so kittens are cute, I’ll give you that. But so are most baby animals apart from Aye Ayes, who would kill you if you turned your back on them (not necessarily a fact).

Q. How do baby animals trick us into thinking they’re cute?

A. They have big eyes and a disproportionate body-to-head ratio. Just like baby humans.

Why does the general public love cats?

I blame Harry Pointer and his flippin’ carte de visite’s pictures. In the 1870s he thought it would be fun to photograph his cats doing human things:

Funny eh?

Things that really aren’t cute about cats:

1. Their miaow sounds like a baby crying. That isn’t a coincidence – it’s planned.

2. They’re not rubbing up against you as a way of showing emotion, they’re marking you as their property.

3. They’re not bringing you ‘presents’, they’re highlighting the fact that you are an inadequate hunter. And laughing at you.

4. Cats aren’t attached to you. In the BBC2 programme “Little Cat Diaries”, psychologists showed that it doesn’t matter who feeds or fusses over them. You are disposable.

5. Cats recognise your voice – they just choose to ignore you. A study published by the University of Tokyo which looked at 20 domestic cats concluded that cats physically respond more to the voice of their owner than that of a stranger’s. I repeat – they choose to ignore you.

So why are there so many cat videos (nearly 55 million on YouTube)?

Geeks love cats: Geeks rule the world: Geeks make videos: Geeks are cool – this makes cats cool by default and cat videos painfully widespread.

“Cats require relatively little maintenance (no baths, no walks) and are basically nocturnal animals, so they’re a perfect match for the Internet geek/coder/hacker lifestyle.” Jack Schofield author of the Ask Jack Guardianblog

If you need an anything to support this theory just take a look at this:

View count – 105,612,988

Ed Sheeran has a Twitter account for his cat, Graham, that has over 52,000 followers. This is more people than live in Clacton-On-Sea. If his cat could type, I’d follow it.

 What does having a cat say about you?

A recent study at the University of Texas, Austin, showed that cat people were generally about 12 percent more neurotic than dog people.

Despite the sheer volume of cat videos you’ll find online, dog videos are actually more popular.

Ultimate Dog Tease:

151,522,409 views.

Funny and clever. We call that a dog win.

An equivalent cat video “Funny cats in water, EPIC”

89,209,556 views

Funny and clever? Or just a bit weird?

 

So why are there so many cat videos?

1. Cats are curious creatures by nature. If you put a cardboard box or a bag in a room the chances are the cat will be in it the next time you go to pick it up. Grab the camera!

2. Cats are more agile, which gives them more opportunities to get into scrapes.

3. Cats are small – again opening up more chances for catching them on film. You wouldn’t find an Irish Wolfhound or a horse adorably stumbling across a book shelf.

4.  The glaringly obvious reason is that cat videos work on two levels – if you don’t like cats with their arrogant, often aloof mindset, then you don’t mind seeing them fail. If you love them, then these blunders are inexplicably cute. Win Win.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the beliefs of the rest of the team. In a study run by Curveball Media’s C.A.T. department, 75% were “Ahh” people, 15% ‘Ha, ha” and 10% “Meh”.